We do want to talk about the dichotomy of the view of lingerie for women and for men. In setting up Moot, what we wanted to do was to create a range of luxurious undergarments that sat in parallel with the offering for women’s bodies, but ones that were designed to fit a male form.
Moot is gender non-conforming because we wholly reject the idea that any assigned or accepted gender should prevent a human from having the freedom to choose the fabric and style that they wish to wear. We will not conform with a ‘rule’ that we must wear boxers or briefs, and they must be cotton and 'manly' and have big elastic logos with SPORTS words and they must be in neutral colours only. Blurgh. We will not conform.
We wanted to ask Ray at what point he acknowledged a desire to wear something that as a man, he wasn’t ‘supposed’ to wear, and how did he feel in himself?, firstly acknowledging it and later, acting upon it. We wanted to hear about his internal feelings, not how other people reacted, but what the impact was like for him. And why despite people calling it cross-dressing, we don't think it's cross-dressing at all! It's simply dressing. Damn fine dressing.
It is really important to stop and think about this. What are you able to offer yourself? Could you have a walk at lunchtime? - it really does work, it sounds way too simple to be an effective lift, but it is. Could you arrange to meet your little nephews on that hill near to them and try and get the kite to fly? Or surprise your partner / friend / neighbour by having a go at making a cake? It is quite remarkable how seemingly small gestures have a far greater effect on how you feel about yourself.
When we first started talking about actually launching a men’s lingerie brand, we had the idea that we might get some negative comments from people, some frightened ‘haters’ might pop up and cast their gloom on our happy little business, but we naively had absolutely no idea, and were totally unprepared for, where the real trouble would lie...
